Glossary

Short, plain definitions for the interpretive, biblical, historical, and geographic terms used throughout this site. These are general, widely used definitions, not any one teacher's specific wording.

Interpretive frameworks (the "where they stand" question)

Futurist: Holds that most end-times prophecy, especially in Revelation and similar Old Testament passages, refers to events still ahead of us, not yet fulfilled.
Preterist: Holds that most or all end-times prophecy was already fulfilled in the past, commonly tied to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Partial preterism holds some prophecy remains future; full preterism holds nearly all of it has already happened.
Historicist: Holds that prophecy describes a continuous sweep of history from the biblical writer's own time up through the present and on to the end, with symbols corresponding to specific historical events or figures across the centuries in between.
Idealist (or Spiritual/Symbolic view): Holds that prophetic imagery represents timeless spiritual truths, such as the ongoing struggle between good and evil, rather than pointing to specific historical events, past or future.
Dispensationalist: A futurist framework that further divides history into distinct eras ("dispensations") in which God relates to humanity differently, keeps a sharp distinction between Israel and the Church, expects a future literal fulfillment of Old Testament promises to Israel, and typically holds to a future rapture and a literal Millennium.

Other terms used on this site

Hermeneutic: The method or approach used to interpret a text. A "literal hermeneutic" means reading a passage as concretely as possible unless the text itself signals it's figurative.
Eschatology: The branch of theology concerned with "last things," including death, judgment, and the end of the world.
Typology / Type: A pattern where an earlier person, event, or institution in Scripture prefigures a later, fuller one. For example, Antiochus IV Epiphanes is widely read as a "type" of a future, fuller fulfillment.
Tribulation: In futurist and dispensationalist frameworks, a future period of intense distress preceding Christ's return, often divided into two three-and-a-half-year halves.
Rapture: The belief, mainly held in dispensationalist circles, that believers will be caught up to meet Christ. Its timing relative to the Tribulation (before, during, or after) varies by teacher.
Millennium: A future thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, described in Revelation 20. Read literally by premillennialists; read symbolically, or as already underway, by amillennialists and postmillennialists.
Premillennial / Amillennial / Postmillennial: Views on when Christ's return happens relative to the Millennium: before it (pre-), with no literal future thousand-year period at all (a-), or after a long period of gradual gospel success (post-).

Biblical and interpretive terms

Prophecy / Prophetic: A message presented as coming from God through a prophet or other inspired speaker. Biblical prophecy can include warning, judgment, encouragement, worship, or a call to repentance as well as prediction of future events. Calling a passage prophetic does not by itself settle whether it predicts a future event.
Seer: An Old Testament title for a person who receives or communicates divine insight, with usage that overlaps the role of a prophet. The title does not by itself establish that every statement or composition by that person predicts a future event.
Levite / Levitical: A member of the tribe of Levi, which was assigned religious and service responsibilities connected with Israel's worship. "Levitical" means relating to the Levites or their duties.
Davidic era: The period associated with King David and his dynasty. In approximate dating, the phrase usually points to the time of David's reign around the early 10th century BC.
Babylonian exile: The period following Babylon's conquest of Judah and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, when many Judeans were deported to Babylonia. The phrase may also include the earlier deportation of 597 BC.
Confederacy / Coalition: A group of otherwise distinct peoples, states, or rulers acting together for a shared purpose. Using the term does not mean they became one nation or permanent political state.
Historical referent: A real person, event, place, or circumstance to which a text may refer. Identifying a possible historical referent does not automatically prove that it is the text's only meaning or fulfillment.
Fulfillment: An event understood to bring a prophecy, promise, pattern, or expectation to completion. Interpreters may disagree over whether a passage has a past fulfillment, a future fulfillment, more than one stage of fulfillment, or no identifiable fulfillment yet.
Divine intervention: God acting within events to produce an outcome. A biblical text may present an outcome as God's action even when human decisions or ordinary events are also part of the account.

Historical and geographic terms

Levant: A modern geographic term for the eastern Mediterranean lands, generally including the areas of modern Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Its exact boundaries vary by context.
Transjordan: The lands east of the Jordan River. In biblical and ancient-history discussions, the term commonly includes territories associated with Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Israelite tribes east of the river.
Semitic: Primarily a linguistic classification for related languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Arabic, and Phoenician. The classification describes linguistic relationships.
City-state: An independent city together with the territory it controlled, functioning as its own political state. Ancient Tyre was a city-state rather than a modern nation-state.
Ethnoreligious group: A community whose shared identity includes both ancestry or culture and religious tradition. Individual beliefs and family histories can vary within the community.